Resurgam
Exiled afar from youth and happy love,If Death should ravish my fond spirit henceI have no doubt but, like a homing dove,It would return to its dear residence,And through a thousand stars find out the roadBack into earthly flesh that was its loved abode.
Words in this poem
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- homing a.
- Home-returning; -- used specifically of carrier pigeons.
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Resurgam is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #617; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alan Seeger, Resurgam, in Poems (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seeger-poems/resurgam.html, id L12982.
Form and metre
Resurgam is 6 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCC loveA · henceB · doveA · residenceB · roadC · abodeC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Exiled afar from youth and happy love, | 10 | /·˘/···/˘· |
| If Death should ravish my fond spirit hence | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I have no doubt but, like a homing dove, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| It would return to its dear residence, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘˘ |
| And through a thousand stars find out the road | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Back into earthly flesh that was its loved abode. | 12 | ···/˘·····˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.